Where Is The NHL Draft Held?

The NHL Draft is held annually in June, with the specific location rotating each year. This year, the Draft will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

NHL Draft Basics

The NHL Entry Draft is held once every year, typically at the end of June, and is used as a way for NHL teams to select new players to add to their rosters. The draft consists of seven rounds, and each team is given one pick in each round. In recent years, the draft has been held in Chicago, Illinois.

What is the NHL Draft?

The National Hockey League Entry Draft is an annual meeting in which every NHL franchise systematically selects the rights to available amateur players who meet basic entry requirements. Entry requirements include gender, age, and citizenship (each draft eligible player must be born within one of the fifty states of the USA or Canada).

NHL scouts evaluate prospects for over a year leading up to the draft, and each team maintains its own scouting list of hundreds of players. During this evaluation period, players attend various junior or college hockey games and tournaments across North America and Europe.

The NHL uses a draft lottery system to determine the order in which each team will pick in the first round of the draft; after the first round, teams are given picks in reverse order of finish from the previous season, meaning that last season’s Stanley Cup champions become this season’s 30th-ranked team. The lottery was implemented in order to discourage tanking (deliberate losses) by teams that have little chance of qualifying for post-season play.

When is the NHL Draft?

The NHL Draft is held every June. It is a seven-round event, with each team making one pick in each round.

Where is the NHL Draft?

The NHL Entry Draft is held annually, typically in late June or early July, with the exact date and location varying from year to year. It is a major event on the NHL calendar, as it marks the start of the league’s offseason and is one of the few occasions when all 31 team officials and staff members gather in one place.

The draft usually takes place over two days, with rounds 1-7 being held on Day 1 and rounds 8-31 taking place on Day 2. The first round is widely considered the most important, as it is where the future stars of the league are selected. In recent years, the draft has been held in various locations across North America, including Chicago, Buffalo, Dallas and Vancouver.

NHL Draft Location

The NHL Draft is held annually, usually at the end of June. The draft order is determined by the standings of the previous season. The team with the worst record gets the first pick, and the Stanley Cup champion gets the last pick. The last two drafts were held in Vancouver and Buffalo.

Previous NHL Draft Locations

The National Hockey League Entry Draft (NHL Draft) is held once every year, generally within two to three weeks after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The NHL Draft Lottery is held prior to the NHL Draft, in order to determine the order of selection for the 14 teams that did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

NHL Central Scouting Bureau final rankings are used by NHL teams during the draft process. If a team wants to draft a player who has not been ranked by Central Scouting, they are able to do so, but they forfeit their next draft pick.

The NHL Entry Draft has seen various changes throughout its history. In its early years, the draft was held over multiple days and saw anywhere from 50-70 players drafted each year. However, as the league began to expand in 1967, so too did the number of draft picks each team was allotted. The first single day draft was held in 1980 and featured 211 total selections.

Since 1980, there have been several different locations that have hosted the annual NHL Entry Draft. Below is a list of previous NHL Entry Draft locations:

-1980: Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec
-1981-1984: Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario
-1985: Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan
-1986: Calgary Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta
-1987: Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan
-1988: Brenden Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey
-1989: BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia
-1990: Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
-1991: BC Place Stadium in Vancouver
-1992 and 1993: Montreal Forum in Montreal
-1994: Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York
-1995 and 1996: Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York
-1997 and 1998: General Motors Place (now Rogers Arena)in Vancouver
1999 and 2000: First Union Center (now Wells Fargo Center)in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
2001 and 2002: Air Canada Centre (then Air Canada Centre)in Toronto

1903

Upcoming NHL Draft Locations

The National Hockey League Entry Draft (known as simply the NHL Draft) is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select therights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirements (North American players 18–20 years old and European/international players 18–21 years old). The NHL Entry Draft is held once every year, generally within two to three months after the conclusion of the previous season. During the draft, teams take turns selecting eligible players in reverse order of their standings during the previous season.

The first NHL Entry Draft was held on June 5, 1963 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. Between 1947 and 1963, prior to the establishment of the NHL Draft, NHL teams held an annual intra-league draft to replenish their rosters with amateur players. varies from year-to-year and is generally announced prior to each draft.

NHL Draft History

The National Hockey League Entry Draft is held once every year, generally within two to three months after the conclusion of the previous season. It is a formal event in which every team in the league, in reverse order of their standings in the previous season, select a young player who has yet to play in the NHL.

First NHL Draft

The first NHL Draft was held on June 5, 1963. It was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The first overall pick was Chris Nilan, who was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.

Most Recent NHL Draft

The most recent NHL Entry Draft was the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, held virtually via video conference on October 6–7, 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the draft was not held in its originally intended location of Montreal, Quebec, and was instead held virtually for the first time in NHL history. The 2020 draft logo and website were unveiled on June 16, 2020.